To Follow Men Like Them

There is a tendency to think of jobs emphasizing physical work and jobs emphasizing mental work as opposed to one another. However, in his poem “Digging” (“To Follow Men Like Them,” CUA Primer 58–59), Seamus Heaney draws a connection between his own work as a poet and the work of his father and grandfather digging. How does Heaney honor the work of his father and grandfather in this poem? Why is it important that people who make a living through jobs emphasizing mental work honor the work of people who make a living through jobs emphasizing the physical?